


The Evening Dawn

by TheManedWolf



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-04-26 12:29:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14402157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheManedWolf/pseuds/TheManedWolf
Summary: Nick and Judy do what they have to in order to survive, after an atomic bomb explodes in the heart of downtown Zootopia.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story began life as a "greentext" (of sorts) that I posted on 4chan for the "Post Apocalyptic Zootopia" TT event, beginning on 4/17/2018 (so a few days after it was over, oops.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who might be wondering about where the characters are, I have made a map for each chapter (I'll make a separate album for each chapter to avoid spoilers).  
> Chapter 1: https://imgur.com/a/WX2sLGB

One Friday afternoon in late fall, just a few months after Nick graduated from the ZPD Academy, he talked Judy into leaving work a few hours early.  
The pair headed over to Nick's basement apartment in Savannah Central, to avoid having Judy’s loud and nosy neighbors spoil their evening.  
As they were getting ready to head out to dinner, Judy said "You really need to find a better apartment Nick."  
Nick shrugged, "I have history with this place Fluff, and it's real cheap, because the owner owes me."  
Judy shook her head, "Cheap or not, this place is a dump and ..."; her sentence was interrupted by a sudden power outage.

The sun had just set, but a bright orange glow shone in through the basement windows, and they both turned to look at it.  
Moments later, a blast wave struck, shattering all of the small windows, and sending splinters of glass flying into the apartment.  
If the windows hadn't been made of wire glass, they would have given way completely, and let in more of the dust which was now filling the street.  
Thinking quickly, the pair covered their muzzles with their shirts, and then took cover by the door they were about to exit.  
Nick yelled over the noise, and his own ringing ears, "Was that a bomb?!" to which she replied, "It sure sounded like one!"

Judy dug her police radio out of her purse and then switched it on.  
They heard several frantic voices trying to talk at once, most of which were unfamiliar to them.  
When the channel cleared for a moment, Judy spoke, "This is an official police channel, would all civilians please get off the line, for everyones safety, over."  
After a few moments, she spoke again, "Officer Hopps here with officer Wilde, we're safe at his apartment in Savannah Central, over."  
Judy faintly heard a familiar voice reply "Officer McHorn here, I'm safe with Wolford in northern Tundra Town, and we're glad you two are okay."  
Soon a second reply came through, this one clearer, "It's good to hear from you four; Officer Fangmeyer here, I'm with Delgato in Sahara Square."  
Fangmeyer continued, "We were pursuing a suspect on foot in Cactus Grove, then out of nowhere an explosion knocked us flat on the ground, over."  
Judy winced, "That doesn't sound good, are you two alright? Over."  
This time Delgato answered, "It cut us up pretty bad, and left us blind for a few minutes, but that cleared up, and we're now sheltering in the Oasis hotel, over."

Nick borrowed the radio from Judy and asked, "Have any of you been able to reach headquarters? Over."  
None of the other officers had, and they soon came to the unpleasant conclusion that the station was too close to ground zero for anyone there to have survived.  
Wolford said that he could see a mushroom cloud over the center of downtown, confirming what they had been fearing, that it had been a nuclear blast.  
There were several major questions for which nobody had answers, such as who had set off the nuke, and what was their motivation?  
The six officers agreed that in order to conserve battery power, they would only switch on their radios at 9 AM and 9 PM each day, to give their current status.

Judy wanted to try to travel to Bunny Burrow, but Nick convinced her that the radiation outside was likely far too intense for them to travel.  
He said that they would have to stay put for at least a week, by which point it would no longer be fatal to spend a couple hours outside.  
Wilde pointed up at one of the damaged windows, "We better get those patched up before the fallout lands, or we're toast."  
Using a step ladder, Judy helped him tape some garbage bags up over the broken glass.  
Next, they piled loose bricks and metal junk up on the window sills, to provide extra shielding.

Once they had finished patching the windows, Nick walked over to a metal cabinet in the corner of the room and took a dusty cardboard box down from the middle shelf.  
The side of the box was marked "Zootopia Civil Defense - Radiation Detection Set", he brushed off the dust, and then open the lid.  
"This basement used to be a fallout shelter back in the 1960's, and luckily some of the old civil defense gear is still here."  
He removed a manual labeled "Radiation Safety and You," followed by a yellow colored metal box with a handle on top, which was cryptically marked "CD V-715".  
The fox snapped open the latches on the ends of the box, "If this old survey meter still works, we’ll be glad I didn't sell it."  
Nick loaded a battery into the meter, then snapped the case closed again, "Fingers crossed," as he switched it on.  
After skimming the manual and fiddling with it for a few minutes, he smiled "Well, the 'circuit check' function says it works at least."  
The box also contained a handful of dosimeters, but the decades-old leaky battery inside the dosimeter charger had ruined it, rendering the dosimeters useless.  
That left them with no way to keep track of the total amount of radiation they were going to be exposed to, which they hoped wouldn't be much.

Judy patted her empty tazer holster, "It sounds like things are already pretty rough out there, and our service weapons are locked up the station."  
Nick nodded, "Unfortunately, I think our gear is gone, along with the rest of the station, but I think I have the solution."  
He walked over to one of the old filing cabinets in his apartment, and slid open the bottom drawer.  
The fox shoved aside a stack of yellowed financial reports, then removed a battered cigar box, which had been hidden underneath.  
As he walked back to Judy, he said "Try not to be mad about this, I had been meaning to get rid of it, but I think we'll be glad I didn't."  
Wilde said "Be careful, it's still loaded," as he placed the box in Judy's waiting paws. 

Judy set the box down on the floor, and then opened the lid, revealing an old short-barreled .38 special revolver.  
Guns are banned in Zootopia, but the police station had a few seized firearms that they kept for emergencies, so Judy knew what she had in front of her, and how to handle it safely.  
Judy glared up at Nick "Are you crazy? The minimum sentence for illegal firearm possession is 20 years!"  
Her initial anger quickly faded, and she carefully picked the weapon up to look it over, "How'd you get this anyway?"  
Nick scratched his muzzle "Well, to make a long story short, I got it from an angry badger who tried to blow my head off with it."  
He continued, "Luckily his first shot missed, and before he could fire another round, Finnick clobbered him with that bat of his."  
"I grabbed the gun because I knew he'd probably come after me once he regained consciousness, and I'd rather be the armed one."  
Judy released the cylinder and saw that there were only four rounds loaded, "Do you have any more ammunition for it?"  
He shook his head, "I'm afraid not Carrots, so each shot is going to have to count."  
She snapped the cylinder into place and said, "I hope you don't have to use it at all," as she handed the gun back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who might be wondering about where the characters are, I have made a map for each chapter (I'll make a separate album for each chapter to avoid spoilers).   
> Chapter 2: https://imgur.com/a/T6lnXj1

Judy looked around the apartment. "If we're really going to be stuck here for a week, then I hope you have enough food for us both."  
"Well, we’ve been eating out a lot lately, and I was planning on going grocery shopping this weekend, so ... no, no I don't."  
"Terrific. Well, what about water?"  
He pointed at the ceiling, "This building has a rooftop water tank, so unless it was destroyed in the blast, it should still be full of clean water."  
Per the survival manual, they filled several containers lined with garbage bags with water, then tied the bags off, to keep it pure.

Nick sorted through the few items in his pantry, which mostly consisted of snacks.  
"Well Fluff, since a mighty fox like me can go longer without food than a bunny such as you, I’ll only eat enough to keep my hunger under control."  
Judy looked at the sad little pile of food, "That's noble of you, but unfortunately, I think we'll both be pretty hungry in a week."  
Nick nodded, "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that; we are going to need to get more supplies as soon as we can."  
In an effort to get some additional protection from the radiation outside, they made a barrier from a few of the old filing cabinets, then went to sleep behind it.

The next morning, Judy switched her radio on at 9 AM, as agreed, and spoke to three of the four officers they had talked to the day before.  
McHorn reported that he and Wolford were both feeling okay, and that they were in a well stocked shelter on Avalanche Avenue.  
However, the news from Delgato was not so pleasant, "I'm not doing too good Hopps, I'm too weak to even stand, and Fangmeyer, well, she's unconscious now."  
When Judy called again at 9 PM, Delgato had more bad news, "Officer Fangmeyer passed away two hours ago, and I suspect I will be joining her soon myself... over."  
On the morning of the third day, Nick tried to reach Delgato, but received no reply.  
At least McHorn and Wolford were still safe and sound.

After five days of meager rations, Nick felt like he was starving; even in his darkest days he hadn't gone this long without a real meal.  
In desperation, Nick picked through the old Civil Defense food, which had been stored below the radiation monitoring equipment.  
Everything in the musty cardboard box had expired decades ago, and most of what hadn't been eaten in that time was never actually edible to begin with.  
The majority of the cans were labeled 'Emergency protein supplement for predators', which sounded exactly like something Nick could use right now.  
The truth was that the so called 'supplement' was laced with poison; the government's thinking was that you wouldn't want a bunch of hungry predators in a shelter full of prey.  
Their plan had been that if food was running short, they would distribute the 'supplement' to all the predators in the shelter at once, and then the sedative overdose would make them fall into an endless sleep.  
The reality of what was in those cans remains a black mark on Zootopia's history, and it causes distrust among predators there to this day.

Picking through the few cans that weren't poison, Nick found two cans of baked beans that looked promising, as they weren't bulging, and hadn't rusted through.  
Nick opened one of them, and then gave the contents a careful sniff.  
The beans didn't smell fresh, but at least they didn't smell spoiled either.  
He grabbed a spoon and took a small bite of the unappetizing looking mush; it still tasted like baked beans somehow, so he wolfed the rest of it down.  
If Judy had been awake, she surely would have stopped him from eating something so questionable.

Nick laid down next to her for a nap, feeling full for the first time in four days.  
That full feeling was not to last, and Nick was soon awoken by an upset stomach.  
Judy was soon woken up too, by the sound of Nick puking on the floor.  
Worrying for his health, she talked him into eating the last bag of chips.

Judy switched on her radio at 9 PM, and she immediately heard McHorn's voice, which was uncharacteristically frantic.  
"...s is Officer McHorn, ZPD; Judy, are you there?"  
She keyed the radio, "Officer Hopps here; is something wrong McHorn? Over.”  
Judy's worried voice woke Nick up, and after putting his shirt back on, he joined her in listening intently to the radio static for a reply.  
"It's good to hear your friendly voice, Hopps. Listen, rioters or a gang, or something just hit the shelter..."  
"Can’t have been more than a few hours ago, but it feels like fucking days-"  
After a few moments filled only with static, Judy thumbed the switch, "McHorn, are you there? Over."  
Concerned, she looked over and saw Nick jaw sag downwards.  
"Yeah," McHorn came through clearer now, "Yeah, I’m here, but Wolford... Wolford’s dead."  
"I took two for him after they winched the doors down, but he still caught one in the neck and ... that was that."  
Judy's mouth fell open, and her nose twitched, "God, Mchorn, I’m so sorry. You said you got hit, are you gonna be okay? Over."  
"Both shotgun blasts hit my stomach, and it’s bruised to shit, but my sturdy hide kept the pellets from going into my guts."  
"I just ... just couldn't get in front of him quick enough."  
Judy hit the button to respond, her eyes searching the room, but she couldn't think of what to say.  
Her thumb slipped off, terminating the transmission. 

Nick slid over and pulled her head to his chest, then gently removed the walkie talkie from her hands.  
"McHorn, this is Wilde. I'm so sorry to hear about Wolford; I know you two were close."  
He continued, with a bit of venom in his voice, "I hope you put those thugs out of commission, for good."  
A bitter laugh came from the other side, "Oh you know I did, and they learned this horn of mine isn't just for show."  
"Now I'm armed with that double-barreled shotgun, and that damn bolt-action rifle too."

A few moments of silence passed before McHorn continued, "Wilde, before I forget, don’t broadcast any information about your whereabouts."  
"This channel isn’t secure, and I think they found my location from our radio chatter, so be careful what you say, over."  
Thinking quickly, Nick lied, "Don't worry, Judy and I moved our gear to a new safe house a few hours ago, I won't say any more about it, over."  
Nick wasn't quite sure if McHorn was fooled, or just playing along, "That's good to hear Wilde, but you two should leave the city ASAP. Over."  
"Judy and I agree, and we were planning on going to her parent's place in The Burrows soon, over."  
Nick took Judy's paw in his, "McHorn, have you heard anything about the situation in the Burrows?"  
He could feel Judy squeeze his paw and tense her back at the question.  
"I'm sorry, but the bridge is out Wilde. Rumor is that a bomb went off in the train as it was midway over the bridge."  
He continued, "In fact, all of the trains are out of service, due to both a lack of power, and flooding from the ice in Tundratown melting."  
"Whatever hit downtown was ... relatively small, but it was well placed to kill a lot of mammals, and destroy our infrastructure."  
"I do have some good news though, a friend of mine with a telescope told me that The Burrows looks intact."  
"You can forget about getting there directly though. Oh, and stay the fuck out Sahara Square. Over."  
Nick keyed the mic, "Thanks for the news McHorn, even if it isn't good."  
"We're just about out food here, so we're going to have to venture out soon. Over."

McHorn's voice came through again, "Wilde, I have an idea; do you remember that place I showed you, from my vacation photos?"  
"Yeah, I know the place, or the general area it's in at least. What about it?"  
"Good, I'm driving there now in my cruiser; along with three civilian survivors from the shelter. You and Hopps should join us there, over."  
Nick paused a moment, letting Judy out of his grasp, "It's a long way away, but we'll try to get there, over."  
"Listen Wilde, I'm about sure my place is out of radio range, but keep checking your radio as scheduled anyway, over."  
"Will do, your cruiser radio probably reaches further than our handset, over."  
"Good luck out there you two, you've proven you're tougher than you look, so I'm sure you can make it. Over and out."

The new plan was decided, they would try to reach McHorn's cottage on the coast of the Marshlands; it was outside of Zootopia, and hopefully free of fallout.  
To get there, they would have to cross a lot of radioactive ground, and they would need more supplies for the trip.  
Neither Nick nor Judy owned a car, and they had left the cruiser parked at the station for the weekend.  
Unless they could find a vehicle, it would be a long and dangerous trip on foot for the two of them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who might be wondering about where the characters are, I have made a map for each chapter (I'll make a separate album for each chapter to avoid spoilers).   
> Chapter 3: https://imgur.com/a/qOmmDOV

It had been a week since the blast, and Judy was throughly sick of being trapped in the basement that had become their shelter.  
At 9 AM she switched on her radio, and waited to hear the voice of McHorn, their only outside contact for the last few days.  
She soon heard a faint transmission from a familiar voice, "The best path to your target is still clear, I hope you're on it. Over and out."  
McHorn's message was intentionally vague, but Judy figured it meant that the bridge from the Canal District to the Marshlands was still standing, and that McHorn was there.  
The radio in the rhino's cruiser was much more powerful than their hand-held, so Judy decided not to waste precious battery power attempting to reply.  
After switching off the radio, Judy split the last candy bar with Nick, who hadn't eaten anything since the bag of chips, two days prior.  
It couldn't be delayed any longer, they needed to head out into the radioactive dust and rubble, to search for food.

Nick pointed at an old paper map of the city. "I think our best option is the closest one, the 'Smoke-N-Chomp' mini-mart up the road."  
He continued, "They didn't keep much food there, and that dump may not even be standing, but the closest true grocery store is almost a mile away."  
Since looting a store wasn’t technically legal, even in an emergency, they decided not to wear their uniforms, but they carried their badges just in case.  
The pair followed the handbook on how to protect themselves from the radiation, as best they could with the materials they had.  
Nick cut up a t-shirt to make a pair of improvised face masks, which he hoped would keep the worst of the dust out of their lungs.  
Luckily, Judy had brought a change of clothes in a small backpack with her, and Nick had a worn, but sturdy backpack of his own.  
The plan was to first find some much needed food, and to then scout for a vehicle that could handle the trip to McHorn's Cottage.

Nick unlocked the heavy steel door for the first time in seven days, it was time to venture out into the unknown.  
They slipped outside, being careful to open the door as slightly and as briefly as possible, to minimize the amount of dust they let in.  
The pair looked around the alley, everything was covered in brown dust, and the air was filled with it too, making it hard to tell exactly where the sun was.  
After locking the door, Nick glanced down at the dial on his survey meter.  
"It's reading 10 rads per hour Carrots, we really shouldn't stay out here long."  
"I wasn't planning on it Slick, let's go get that food and get back here ASAP."

Judy looked towards the end of the alley, "Oh sweet cheese and crackers! Is that a body down there?!"  
The pair cautiously approached the dust covered form at the end of the alley, and saw that it was a weasel, with a knife sticking out of his back.  
Judy bent down for a closer look, "Is that... Duke Weaselton?"  
Nick squatted down as well, "No, that's my landlord, Oscar Lutreo. I wonder who did this to him, and why, he was pretty nice guy."  
He shook his head and stood up, "Well rest in peace Oscar, at least you wont have to worry about me being late on the rent anymore."  
Judy got up and followed him. "Poor guy, it looks like he didn't get a chance to fight back."

It was eerily quiet outside, but still they were cautious when they peaked out from the alley onto Berry Lane.  
There was nobody out on the street, nobody living at least.  
Even though they only had to travel a block, they passed three more bodies in the street, a silver fox, a chamois, and a hyena still clutching a bottle of booze.  
Judy asked Nick, "You seem to know everyone, did you recognize any of those, mammals, besides Oscar of course?"  
He shook his head "No, thankfully not. I don't think they lived around here, maybe they were trying to flee the city center."

The pair soon reached their target, the corner mini-mart up the block from Nick's place.  
Unfortunately, the dilapidated apartment building that once stood next to it had been toppled by the blast, and it buried the small store under a heap of rubble.  
"Well so much for that plan Carrots, we'll have to try the gas station a couple blocks up the road," said Nick, as he turned to walk that way.  
"Don't be so hasty Nick, the side of the building isn't completely crushed, so there might be some intact food to salvage, if we can get in."  
She soon found a small gap in the rubble, and her flashlight illuminated a metal shelf, which still held a few cans.  
The opening was just big enough for a rabbit to fit through.  
After Judy slipped inside, Nick handed her backpack back to her.

There were two undamaged cans of green beans on the first shelf she had seen, and she loaded them both into her backpack.  
Scrounging around the mess of rubble, moldy food and crushed cans, Judy found an intact can of carrots.  
The insect and fish based products were mainly refrigerated or frozen; even if Judy could reach that section of the store, they would surely be rotten after a week without power.  
In a small stroke of luck, she found an unopened bag of cricket chips, the first item with protein for Nick.

With her small backpack almost full, Judy began crawling back to the opening she had climbed in through, when she heard an argument between Nick and several angry mammals.  
"Hand over your stuff asshole, it's three on one and that toy gun isn't going to save you!" yelled one of the voices.  
Nick yelled back "I'm warning you, back off! I'm a cop, and this isn't a toy!"  
Moments later, just as she was reaching the exit, the sound of a gunshot struck her sensitive ears.

Judy quietly placed the backpack behind her, then looked out through the opening.  
She saw a lion dripping a heavy trail of blood from his stomach, being dragged away by a pair of lionesses.  
One of them turned back and yelled, "We weren't really going to kill you, we just wanted your stuff!"  
The other one, who sounded like she was choking back tears, yelled "You fucking maniac, I though cops were supposed to help people!"  
Judy called out to Nick "First, are you alright? Second, was that really necessary?"  
"I'm fine, and this really isn't the best place to argue Carrots, we need to get out of here! Did you find any food?"  
Judy met his eyes as her brow furrowed slightly, but she said nothing as she lobbed the bag at Nick, and then crawled through.  
"There were three of them Judy, and they all had weapons!" he said, as he gestured to the two improvised clubs and a knife laying in the dust.  
Judy said "I see that; we can talk about it later," as she reached down and picked up a lion-sized folding knife.  
She brushed the dust off the knife, which to her was more like a short sword, "I think I'll keep this, just in case."

Nick looked at Judy's backpack, "That's not a lot of food, was there more in there?"  
She nodded, "Yes, a bit more, but I'm not sure it's worth going back in for."  
"Well, that's unfortunate. Since everyone in the neighborhood heard that gunshot, I don't think we should try 'shopping' for a car today."  
As they walked quickly back to Nick's apartment, Nick whispered, "Did you notice that they were all missing clumps of their fur?"  
She whispered back, "I did, and I hope that doesn't happen to us."  
As they ducked into the alley that lead to Nick's apartment, Judy stopped to remove the knife from Oscar's back, "One less weapon on the streets."  
Nick looked around to see if they had been followed, but saw no-one in the haze, so he unlocked the basement door, and they slipped inside.

Nick swept the survey meter over himself, "It's still reading 1 rad per hour, we need to get this dust off."  
"Yeah, before it takes our fur off instead. While we're at it, we better wash our gear, and the food too."  
The pair stripped down and tossed their clothes in a metal garbage can. "I don't think we should wear those clothes again Carrots, at least not for a while."  
Judy unpacked the looted food, and placed it on the floor around a drain. "Well, I only have one backpack, so I need to salvage this at least."  
They took turns using a bucket, some shampoo, and a painful amount of their precious cached water to wash the dust off.  
Once they had finished cleaning up, Nick checked Judy with the survey meter, and then himself.  
"Well, we got the worst off at least, it's too low for this thing to measure now."

Nick looked over their haul, "Just three small cans of veggies and a bag of chips; not a lot for what we went through."  
He picked up the bag of cricket chips, "I'll start with the chips since you can’t eat them, but I need to eat something more substantial soon."  
Judy opened the can of sliced carrots, and then joined Nick at his small kitchen table, where he was already devouring the chips.  
Both were weary from their unwanted adventure, but Judy wanted to clear the air between them.  
"Despite what those lionesses said, it was probably him or you; I'm sorry for getting angry at you."  
Nick smiled slightly, "You're probably right, thanks Judy, apology accepted. Do you think that gunshot was survivable?"  
She shook her head, "No, not unless he got immediate medical attention."  
Changing the subject, Judy said "First thing in the morning tomorrow, lets pack our gear, and then search for a vehicle that can get us to McHorn's cottage."  
Once they had finished eating, Nick took the spent casing out of his revolver; there were just three rounds left now, and they were still no closer to escaping Zootopia.


	4. Chapter 4

Nick and Judy had only been sleeping for a few hours, before they were rudely awakened by the sound of a door handle rattling.  
Although they'd made sure that nobody was watching them when they returned to the apartment, their tracks in the dust had been followed.  
The rattling soon stopped, and they weren't sure if they'd just imagined it, until they heard someone trying to pry the door open.  
The pry-guard on the sturdy metal door did its job, and the would-be intruders quickly gave up on opening it.  
Nick wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew that would be a bad idea.  
The fox grabbed the revolver from under his pillow, and then lit one of their last candles.  
Judy got up to retrieve the folding knife she'd pulled out of Oscar's back, and just as she was opening it, something struck a nearby window.  
The blast-damaged window frame soon gave way to a crowbar, and fell into the basement, taking the bricks that had been stacked on the sill with it.  
Moments later, a badger slipped through the opening, wielding the crowbar.  
He was quickly joined by a wolverine, who unsheathed a machete. 

Spotting Nick's silhouette in the candle light, the badger spoke up, "Oh hello Nick, I was wondering if you still lived in this old shelter."  
Nick recognized Jazvec from a hustle gone bad a few years prior, but he'd never seen the the wolverine before.  
He cocked the revolver, and then pointed the barrel at the badger, who didn't flinch.  
"Jazvec. Looks like you've recovered from our last meeting in Happytown. Who’s your boyfriend?" Nick swept the barrel over to the wolverine standing beside the badger.  
The wolverine replied, with venom in his voice, "The names Guro, but you won't have to remember that for long."  
Nick bared his teeth, "Nobody has to die here; drop your weapons, and I'll let you both leave, for old times sake."  
The badger snarled. "That's my gun, and when I take it back, I’m gonna make sure the next time it’s pointed at someone, the safety isn’t on."  
Nick glanced down, "What, it doesn't even ..." In that instant, the end table at Jazvec’s feet was sent rocketing towards Nick, via a swift kick.  
The badger then juked to the side, and began moving to flank Nick, just as the table struck the fox's torso.  
It took Nick a moment to shrug off the impact; when he looked up, he saw a snarling wolverine charging at him, with a machete in his raised hand.  
Thinking quickly, the fox lunged forward towards Gulo, to avoid getting stuck by the downward stroke of the machete.  
He struck the wolverines chest with both clenched fists, and then quickly slid the one holding the gun upwards.  
Nick squeezed the trigger, firing a shot through the underside of the wolverine’s muzzle, and up into his brain.  
The momentum of the now lifeless wolverine sent Nick tumbling to the floor, where he found himself pinned by the fresh carcass.

Nick didn't have time to slide out from under Guro, before the badger reached him.  
Jazvec yelled "You're gonna pay for that," as he raised the crowbar up over his head with both hands.  
The fox quickly shifted to the right, but not far enough; the tool struck his left shoulder hard, claw first.  
While Nick was stunned by the pain, the badger grabbed for the gun with his left paw, and began choking Nick with his right.  
In the course of the struggle, Jazvec fell on top of Guro, adding to the crushing weight on the fox's chest.  
Nick's vision blurred as he struggled to breath, and for control of the gun.  
It would have all been over for him, if it hadn't been for Judy.  
The badger had smelled a rabbit in the room, but hadn't otherwise taken notice of her, and that was his undoing.  
Judy jumped onto Jazvec's back, and then swiftly plunged her switchblade down with both hands.  
The blade slipped between the badger's ribs, and then down into his heart.  
Jazvec continued struggling to aim the gun at Nick's head for a few moments, but a twist of the knife put a stop to that.  
The badger's gaze softened and his eyes lost focus; both the struggle, and his life were over.

There'd been a few times where Judy had almost killed somebody in the line of duty, but this is the first time she'd actually taken a life.  
Even though it was to save Nick, and most likely herself as well, there was no going back from this.  
Judy was soon snapped back to the present situation, by the sound of Nick struggling to breath under the weight of three mammals.  
She quickly slid off the dead badger's back, leaving the knife sticking straight up, then got onto her own back, and heaved the corpse off of Nick with her legs.  
Jazvec rolled onto the floor, and the knife in his back made a sickening sound, as it scraped the ground and turned sideways through his flesh.  
If it hadn't been for the pressing desire to help Nick, she probably would have puked at that sight and sound.  
She then dragged the heavy wolverine off of Nick by his legs, which took all of her strength.  
With the weight off of Nick's chest, he was finally able to breath freely, and she rushed to his side.  
"Are you hurt?" she asked as she tried to pull him into an upright position.  
"Ahh my shoulder! Just let me lay here a minute, I need to catch my breath."

Nick rubbed the wound on his shoulder, and noticed that it left his right paw soaking wet, "Is this all my blood?"  
Judy walked over to his shoulder to get a better look in the dim light, "Whoa! This gash is pretty bad, we need get the bleeding under control right now!"  
Wilde's only reply was a quiet "Oh", as he slowly shut his eyes.  
Hopps noticed that her feet were getting wet from the puddle forming around Nick.  
She pushed one paw against the wound and shook his muzzle with the other, "Focus Nick, before you go into shock! Do you have a first aid kit or something?"  
"Huh? Um, yeah... it's in the cabinet... by all that expired food," he drifted off again.  
Judy grabbed Nick's right paw from it's resting place on his chest, and pressed it down on the wound with her paws.  
"Stay with me Nick! You need to keep pressure on it while I get the first aid kit. Can you do that for me?"  
"I'll try," he replied weakly.

Judy hopped up and bolted for the metal cabinet Nick had described, where she quickly found the first aid kit.  
"I hope this old junk is usable," she thought out loud, as she dashed back to him.  
Using her foot, she pressed Nick's paw down on his wound, while she searched though the first aid kit.  
While the kit was old, it was military-grade, and so when she opened a foil packet of gauze, she found pristine white cotton inside.  
Her paws weren't clean, but the damage was done by a dirty crowbar, so it wouldn't matter much anyway.  
"Nick, I'm going to have to pack that wound full of gauze, it's going to hurt a lot, but it should stop the bleeding."  
She heard no response, even as she began quickly jamming the wad of gauze inside.  
Only once she was nearly done did Nick stir, and he begin weakly grasping at source of the pain.  
Judy used medical tape to hold the gauze in place, "I know it hurts Nick, but please don't pick at it!"  
She pressed his paw down on top of the tape, "Hold it like this, so I can go get you some water, and stay awake so you can drink it!"

"Judy quickly returned with a cup of water in one paw, and then lifted his head with the other, "Here, drink this, you need to hydrate."  
She slowly tipped the cup into his mouth, being careful not to pour it too fast, "Let me know when you're ready for a second cup."  
After Nick finished the second glass, he promptly passed out again.  
Judy got a towel to mop up the worst of the blood, and then tucked a pillow under Nick's head.  
His breathing was steady, and the middle of the gauze plug was dry, she had stopped the bleeding in time.  
With the medical emergency under control, for now at least, Judy took stock of the rest of their situation.  
There was a dead wolverine at Nick's feet and a dead badger at his side, they would both need to be moved.  
More pressing though, was the empty window frame, through which the wind was blowing a cloud of radioactive dust.

Judy grabbed a step stool, and then a big comforter, which she used to plug the hole; just like she had done with Nick's injury.  
The worst of the dust that had already blown inside could be mopped up tomorrow.  
She pulled the blanket off of the bed, and then covered Nick with it, in an effort to keep him warm.  
Judy then walked over to the dead badger, and pried Nick's revolver out of his stiff paw, before dragging him a few feet off to the side.  
There were now just two rounds left, and they were weren't even one step closer to their goal; in fact, they were a few steps back.  
Hopps slipped under the blanket on Wilde's uninjured side; he was a little colder than usual, but he was still breathing well.  
Snuggled close to him, exhaustion took over and she promptly fell asleep.

When Judy awoke a few hours later, she panicked briefly, but soon realized that Nick was in fact still breathing, just shallowly.  
He had cooled down even further, and his lips were dry.  
Nick needed water immediately, but he would need food soon too, if he was to survive this.  
Judy removed the the gauze from his wound; the bleeding had stopped, but it was showing signs of infection.  
Nick didn't wake up until she began carefully cleaning out the worst of the puss, "Oww! What's happening?"  
"It's me Nick, relax! I'm cleaning out the wound you got last night, and then I'm going to re-pack it with fresh gauze."  
"Oh right, Jazvec got me pretty good didn't he?"  
"Yes, yes he did, but he paid a heavy price for that."  
Judy got another wad of gauze ready, "This is going to hurt a bit, but it needs to be done."  
She packed his wound full of gauze, and taped it up again.  
"There's only one more packet of gauze left, we need to get more, and some antibiotics too... not to mention food."

Judy grabbed the last can of Cub Soda, which Nick had saved for her; she hoped the sugar in it would help revitalized him.  
"Nick, you need to drink this, but it would be best if you sat up, do you think you can do that if I help you?"  
The fox replied, with none of his usual snarkiness, "I'm feeling pretty lightheaded, but I think I can."  
Judy grabbed Nick's right arm, and then pulled him upright, which took a lot of effort, as he didn't help much.  
Once she was sure he wasn't going to pass out again, she opened the can and handed it to him.  
Nick drank it slowly, and then handed the empty can back to her, "Thanks fluff, I really needed that."

Feeling a bit better, Nick swept his eyes from the dead wolverine at his feet to the dead badger off to his side.  
"Things have really gone south haven't they? I'd never killed anybody in my life until yesterday, and now I've killed two."  
He turned back to Judy, who was busy staring into the lifeless gray eyes of the badger.  
"Thanks for saving me, if you hadn't stabbed him right then, he would have shot me in the head."  
Judy swept her gaze away from the badgers dead eyes, and onto Nick's, which were bloodshot, but still full of life.  
"I know you would have done the same for me Nick."  
"Of course Judy. Now, I hate to ruin the moment, but can you help me to bed? This floor is freezing cold."  
She helped him stand, and then kept him steady by holding his right arm.  
They slowly hobbled over to the mattress, and she helped him lay down onto it.  
With Nick safely tucked into bed, Judy began planning her next moves.  
Escaping Zootopia had become a lot more complicated over the last twenty-four hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was pointed out to me that very few revolvers (in our world) have a safety switch, so I reworked that paragraph of this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

For two days Nick laid in bed, ravaged by fever from the infected wound on his left shoulder.  
Judy had gone out on her own twice, to search for food and supplies.  
She had managed to find another first aid kit in the nearby auto shop, and it had yielded a precious tube of antibiotic ointment.  
A liberal coating of the ointment brought Nick's infection under control, but he was still very weak from lack of food.  
She had last heard from McHorn the previous morning, "I hope you're safe out there, but you need to get moving. Over and out."  
Being trapped in a dark room with a fox who was too sick to talk, and two dead mammals, was weighing heavily on her mind.

Judy gently shook Nick awake, "Good news Slick, I was able to trade for some chicken, and I cooked it up for you."  
She helped him sit upright, and he took a sniff of the plate, "Thanks Fluff. It doesn’t smell like chicken though."  
"It's chicken, your nose must be stuffed or something. Please eat, you need to eat to get your strength back."  
Nick took a bite, and although it tasted good, it didn’t taste right.  
He chewed slowly and curled his muzzle, "Judy, this doesn’t taste like chicken either."  
She replied, in a frantic tone, "Don’t worry about it Nick; just eat, please!"  
The fox reluctantly ate the cubes of cooked meat, and drank the water he was offered,   
Wilde promptly fell asleep again, with a hearty meal in his stomach, for the first time since the disaster.

Nick awoke a few hours later, feeling a bit stronger, and he sat up, this time on his own.  
He noticed that the dead wolverine, was no longer laying on the ground, just past the foot of the bed.   
"Hey Fluff, where did that 'Gulo' guy I shot go?"  
"Uh... I just figured you didn’t want to see him, so I dragged him out of sight."  
A few minutes later, she returned with another plate of meat, which she had re-heated over the propane camp stove.  
"Eat up Nick, you lost a lot of blood, and you need to replenish it so we can get out of here."  
He took a bite and chewed it slowly, then turned to Judy with a questioning look on his face.  
"Are you sure about this meat Carrots? I’ve had chicken plenty of times, and it just doesn’t look or taste like this."  
She stroked his cheek, a little roughly. "Please trust me Nick, it's fine; just eat up, and then go back to sleep, okay?"  
Nick was worried about Judy, and the meat on his plate, but he complied once more.

By the next morning, Nick finally had the strength to get up on his own, and he shuffled his way to the bathroom.  
On his way back, he noticed Gulo's body on the ground, near what served as his kitchen.  
A garbage bag was covering the corpse's head, which Nick expected, but a second bag covered his upper legs.  
Nick saw bloody rabbit paw prints on the ground, so walked over for a closer look.  
Curiosity got the better of him, and he kicked aside the lower bag.  
To his horror, Nick saw that part of one of the wolverine's thighs had been cut away.

Judy was jolted awake by the sound of Nick yelling at her, "Judy, what the Fuck?! You fed me meat from a person!"  
She held her palms up, pleading, "Nick, please calm down! There was nothing left to feed you, and you needed to eat, or you were gonna die!"  
Unconvinced, Nick yelled back, "You could have just gone out and got more food from the mini-mart!"  
"Of course I tried that Nick! The place was completely cleaned out, even some of the moldy food was gone. Please believe me, I was desperate!"  
Nick leaned against a support beam and closed his eyes.  
"I think I’m going to be sick. How could you butcher someone, let alone feed them to me?"  
Judy hastily re-covered the body, then dashed over to take hold of Nick’s arm.  
"Nick, please calm down; I did what I had to, because I can’t live with loosing you."  
"That’s real touching Judy, but that doesn’t make it right."  
"How the fuck do you think I feel?! I’ve never done something like that before, and I didn’t enjoy doing it, but it had to be done!"  
He sighed, "Fine, what’s done is done, but I’m not eating another bite of Gulo, or anyone else."

Nick walked back to the mattress to lay down, and Judy cautiously followed him.  
He looked up at her pleading eyes, which didn't manage to shake the angry look off of his face.  
"I’ve lived here for years Judy, but I don’t want to stay here another day. Please start packing our gear; when my stomach settles, I’ll get up and help you."  
Judy began gathering up all the items she thought were worth bringing, and tried to distract herself from her thoughts with the task at hand.  
She hoped that Nick would have the strength to carry a backpack, otherwise they would have to leave a lot behind.  
With guilt weighing heavily on her mind, she decided to bandage up the dead wolverine's leg with a spare shirt, to hide what she had done.   
Whoever eventually cleared these bodies out would have dealt with so many, that they probably wouldn't look at this one too closely, or so Judy hoped at least.

Half an hour later, Nick got up and walked by Judy, without saying a word.  
After packing clothing, bottles of water, and a few other essentials, he began searching through his belongings, looking for other useful items.  
There was nothing Nick was willing to call food left, but he grabbed the uncharged dosimeters, which he thought they might be able to trade for some food.  
He also packed one of the "supplement" cans, which he hoped he wouldn’t have to use for anything, but it might be a painless way out, if he took a turn for the worse.  
Carrying both his backpack and the survey meter would be difficult with his injured shoulder, but he had an idea.  
Nick remembered he still had that stroller he had pushed Finnick around in for their last hustle together.  
When Nick had told his former partner in crime that he was done hustling, Finnick had said "Well, I'm done pretending to be a toddler; have a nice life," and pushed the stroller out of his van.  
Luckily he had saved it, because it could hold all of their gear until they found a vehicle.  
As Nick dug the pink stroller out, he wondered if Finnick was still alive, they weren't exactly friends, but Nick still cared about him.

Nick placed the survey meter and his backpack on the seat, then tucked the revolver into a fold of the lid's fabric.  
Once he was done packing, Nick broke the silence to ask "Are you ready?"  
Judy had been desperately waiting to hear his voice, so she answered immediately, "Yes, I'm ready. First though, I know you don't want to talk to me, but please listen."  
She grabbed for Nick's paw, but he swung it away, and she backed off; that little gesture hurt her much more than his angry words had earlier.  
Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke, "I know you hate me right now, but we need to be a team out there if we want to survive. If you can't do that for me, do it for yourself instead."  
Nick sighed, and after a few moments, reached his paw out, which Judy quickly grabbed onto with both of her own.  
"Fine Judy, you're right, we need to work together. I'm not ready to forgive what you did, and I'll never forget it, but that's an issue for another day."

Nick pushed the stroller out the door, then locked it behind him.  
"I never want to set foot in there again. I'd say we should burn it down, but someone else might be holed up in the building."  
She cautiously replied, "Well, let's at least wait until we find a car, before we do anything like that."  
The pair walked quietly down the street, looking at the few cars along it.  
A light rain two days prior had turned the fallout dust into mud, which had since dried into a brown sheet over the tops of everything.  
Most of the cars had at least one broken window, probably done by other's looking for food and supplies.  
Judy soon spotted a vehicle that looked promising, an old four wheel drive Sheep Wrangler, medium-sized mammal edition.  
It was nearly free of dust and mud, except for the tires, so it must have been parked in a garage previously.  
She checked the doors, all were locked, except for the rear door; she opened it and climbed inside, then opened the driver's side door.  
"Hey Slick, do you think you can get this thing started?"  
With a bit of his old snark, he replied, "Oh, so you think just because I'm a fox, that I know how to hot-wire a car?"  
She put her hands on her hips, "Nick, I know you weren't exactly an honest fox before I met you."  
"Well, I'll take a crack at it Carrots, but I assure you I've never done anything illegal in my life, certainly not grand theft auto."  
The fox set to work on the car's wiring harness, and in less than two minutes, he had the car running.

He tried to get up from the floor boards, but couldn't, "Hey Judy, can you give me a hand? I'm still a little light headed."  
Judy pulled him upright, and then helped him into the driver's seat "Are you sure you're good to drive Nick?"  
"Driving is mostly sitting Carrots, I've got this. Anyway, if something happens to me, you can just hop in my lap and take over."  
"Alright slick, I trust you. Please buckle up though, so I don't have to hold you upright if that happens."  
Judy tossed both backpacks into the rear of the vehicle, then pulled the stroller inside, and shut the door.  
Once that was done, she hopped into the passenger seat.  
"Next stop, the Marshlands!" she said, with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm.  
Wilde glanced down at the gas gauge, "There's only a quarter tank left, but it should be enough to get us there, if the roads are clear."

Nick locked the driver's side door, and then began pulling away from the curb.  
"Judy, I forgot my revolver in the lid of the stroller, can you please go get it?"  
She replied "Sure, no problem," then slipped into the back of the vehicle, which was just open space, since the rear seats had been removed.  
Judy soon located the gun, which had slipped out onto the floor.   
As she got up, she glanced out the rear window, and her eyes widened at the sight of a pissed-off coyote running out into the road.  
"Step on it Nick! There's a guy with a rifle, and I think we stole his car!"  
Judy ducked down, and started heading back to the passenger seat, just as a bullet shattered the back window.  
The round ripped through the passenger headrest, and then exited through the windshield; luckily Judy hadn't sat down yet.  
Nick swerved back and forth to make it hard for the coyote to aim, but he didn't waste any more bullets on them.

Wilde glanced through the rear-view mirror at the gaping hole where the rear window used to be, "Well, so much for keeping the dust out of here."  
"That reminds me; Carrots, can you check the survey meter?"  
She retrieved it from the back, and then switched it on.   
"Uh Nick, if I'm reading this meter right, we're picking up 12 rads an hour."  
He glanced over at it, "Well that's not good, I hope this is just a hot-spot, and it won't keep getting worse."  
Debris, crashed cars and bodies littered the road, making it slow going, but they pressed onward as quickly as they could.  
It had taken them a few extra days to get moving, but they were finally heading towards what they hoped was safety.


	6. Chapter 6

After half an hour of painfully slow driving, Nick and Judy reached the climate wall that separated Savannah Central from the Rainforest District.  
Nick slowed to a stop, ahead of them lay the entrance to the Soustun Tunnel, which passed straight through the wall.  
The dark opening was mostly blocked off by the toppled wreck of a giraffe sedan, which appeared to have struck the roof of the tunnel.  
As Nick began carefully moving forward again, Judy checked the survey meter.  
“Damn, it's reading 21 rads an hour now, I hope it doesn't get any worse.”  
Nick replied, with a little tension in his voice, “The climate wall should have stopped at least some of radioactive debris, so I'm sure it's better on the other side, we just need to get to it.”

It was a tight squeeze, but the gap between the wreck and the tunnel wall was just big enough to admit their stolen Sheep Wrangler.  
The tunnel used to be well lit by rows of lights embedded in the ceiling, but now the yellowed headlights of the old 4x4 were the only source of light.  
The weak glow illuminated several more abandoned vehicles, which Nick had come to expect, as well as group of tents, which he did not.   
There was no choice but to drive in front of the tents, as everything else was blocked off by wrecked cars.

Some of the wrecks had been strategically turned sideways, to serve as roadblocks, forcing Nick to weave around them.  
Halfway through the tunnel, they were stopped by section of chain link fence, which had been propped up to block the way through.  
Nick slammed his hand on the steering wheel “Fuck, I know this is a trap, but we still need to move that fence.”  
As if on cue, they were approached by a trio of raccoons, who surrounded their vehicle on all sides, except the front.  
Judy yelled “Gun it Nick! We have to break through!”  
Nick slammed on the gas, just as the two raccoons on the sides tried in vain to yank open the doors.  
The third raccoon however, was able to hop through the busted rear window, and into the vehicle.  
With a crunch, the improvised barrier bent, and then gave way to the Wrangler. 

Nick swerved around the remaining parked cars as fast as he could, flinging both the raccoon and their gear around in the rear of the vehicle.  
After a few tense moments, they were clear of the short tunnel, but not of the danger, and The raccoon made his way forward, despite Nick’s swerving.  
The car jacker then wrapped his arm around Nick’s neck, choking him against the headrest, and yelled “Stop the car car you crazy asshole!”  
Nick fought to break free of the choke-hold, which took both of his paws off of the wheel.

With nobody steering, the Wrangler soon ran off of the highway, and then tumbled down the embankment sideways.  
It came to an abrupt stop, with the drivers door against a tree at the bottom.  
Nick hit his head when the vehicle struck the tree trunk, causing him to black out for a few monuments.  
When he opened his eyes, he saw Judy’s staring back at him. “Judy... your forehead’s bleeding, what happened?”  
She grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently, “You crashed the car Nick! Please snap out of it, we need to get out here before the other two raccoons show up!”  
The fox rubbed his neck, “What happened to the one that choked me?”  
Judy said nothing, but gently turned his muzzle to the side.  
Out of the corner of his eye, Nick saw that the raccoon's head had been crushed between the door frame and the tree trunk.

Judy handed Nick the revolver, which she had grabbed during the brief struggle that lead up to the crash, and said “Cover us while I help you out of this seat.”  
Just as she got the seatbelt unbuckled, one of the raccoons reached through the broken passenger window and grabbed Judy by the ears.  
Before Nick could react, the raccoon had pulled her out through the window, and had her in a headlock.  
The third raccoon jumped onto the hood with a knife in one paw, and began climbing in through the broken windshield.  
He hadn’t seen the gun in Nick’s hand, and he didn’t get a chance to.  
Just as the raccoon got one of his paws on Nick’s shoulder, the fox squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet through the underside of the raccoon’s muzzle, and out the back of his neck.  
The now lifeless raccoon crumpled onto the dashboard. 

Fueled by adrenaline, Nick dragged himself out of the drivers seat, and then crawled across the passenger seat to the broken window.  
Nick saw the third raccoon had Judy’s arms pinned against her sides, and was pressing a knife to her throat with his other paw.  
The raccoon yelled “You piece of shit! Toss me the gun, or I’ll kill her!”  
Nick pointed the gun out the window and yelled back, “Do that, and I’ll make sure you die too!”  
Wilde looked through the sights, and aimed the barrel at the raccoon’s head, which was pressed against the side of Judy’s.  
The raccoons eyes went wide, “Don’t do it man! You’ll probably hit her instead!”  
Nick said nothing, and began squeezing the trigger, which the raccoon noticed.  
At the last moment, the raccoon tried to dodge to the right, in the hopes of making the shot hit Judy instead.  
To Nick’s horror, the final round from his revolver sent both mammals tumbling to the ground.

Nick pocketed the now empty revolver, before scrambling out the window, and over to Judy, who was laying on top of the dead raccoon.  
The fox dropped to his knees, like a child who had just broken something precious, something that could never be put back together.  
He sobbed as he picked the limp rabbit up, and cradled her in his arms, “I'm so sorry Judy... I thought I thought I had clean shot.”  
Nick turned his head to kiss her one last time, but then he felt something he didn't expect, the feeling of warm breath on his nose.  
He laid her down on the ground, and then turned her head to the side, to look at the wound he had made; it was down to the bone, but thankfully not through it.  
The bullet must have skimmed the side of Judy’s skull, before striking the raccoon between the eyes.  
Judy was still alive, but the wound on her temple was bleeding profusely, and so Nick dashed back to their wrecked car to find a bandage.

Nick soon located Judy’s backpack, and then carried it back over, to fish out the last of their medical supplies.  
The fox then bandaged the rabbit's wound, as she had done for him days earlier.  
With the bleeding under control, Nick sat down on the brown grass next to her, to wait for her to wake up.  
“What a morning,” he said to himself, “Wait a sec... morning! It might be still be before 9 AM!”  
He looked at the watch on Judy’s wrist, which read 8:52 AM.  
Nick said “Yes!” before reaching over to retrieve the radio from Judy’s backpack.  
He switched it on, and saw that it only had one bar of battery power left, hopefully that would be enough.

Nick got up to his feet again, feeling the cumulative effects of his earlier injury, the car crash, and the morning's exertions.  
He knew he couldn’t just leave Judy laying exposed in the radioactive dust while he waited for her to regain consciousness.  
However, she was too heavy for him to carry anywhere in his condition, so he needed to get creative.  
After thinking for a moment, Nick remembered that the stroller he had used to move their gear earlier was still lying in the back of their wrecked vehicle.  
He walked over to the Wrangler, and then pulled the stroller out through the broken rear window.  
Using all of his remaining strength, he lifted Judy up into the seat, and then strapped her into an upright position.  
He took the watch off of her wrist and put it on his own, before checking the time, it read 8:57 AM now.  
Not much time remained before McHorn would be checking his radio, if he was even still checking that is.  
Wilde moved the stroller so that it faced the road above, then climbed the embankment with the radio in hand.

He reached the highway right at the stroke of 9am, and then sat down on the guardrail, thoroughly exhausted.  
Nick switched on the radio, and listened to the static for a moment, before deciding to try sending a message.  
He pressed the transmit switch, “Officer McHorn, this is officer Wilde, do you copy? Over.”  
A few moments later he received an enthusiastic reply “Nick, it’s great to hear your voice! I’d been wondering what happened to you. Are you somewhere safe, and for that matter, is Judy with you? Over.”  
Nick responded “You can’t imagine how happy I am to hear from you too! Listen, Judy’s here, but she’s not doing too good, and neither am I honestly, so... I have a really big favor to ask of you. Over.”  
McHorn replied, with a mix of concern and apprehension in his voice, “I'm sorry to hear that Nick. Let me guess, you need an extraction? Over.”  
“You guessed it McHorn. We’re just inside the Rainforest District, by the exit of the Soustun tunnel, do you think you can reach us? Over.”  
“I’m already in the cruiser, so I’ll pick up officer Rhinowitz, and two of my civilian buddies, and then we’ll head over there pronto.”  
“Thanks, I owe ya big buddy! Also, come well armed, I suspect there'll be trouble, and you don’t want to look like an easy mark. Over.”  
Hearing no reply, Nick checked the screen of the radio, it had run out of batteries, so he hoped his warning had been received.  
Nick figured it would take McHorn at least an hour to reach their position, so they needed to stay safe until then.

With rescue now on the way, Nick walked back down the embankment to check on Judy.  
He checked Judy's breathing, which was steady, but she was still unconscious.  
Wilde glanced at the watch again, which was now on his wrist; about twenty minutes had passed, which he knew wasn’t good.  
Looking around, he saw a dry drainage tunnel, not unlike the one they had reunited under, and decide that was a good place to hide out, while they waited for McHorn.

After fifteen tense minutes in the near darkness had passed, Judy finally stirred.  
She blinked her eyes, in an effort to get them to focus, “Ugh... why does my head hurt? Also, Where are we, and why am I strapped into a stroller?”  
Barely able to contain his excitement, Nick said “Judy! I was really worried about you!”  
He continued, “Well, how do I put this, your head hurts because I...” Nick looked away, before continuing, “Sort of accidentally ... grazed your head.. with a bullet.”  
Judy rubbed the bandage on her aching head, “What?! Why?! Oww, it hurts to yell.”  
“I probably should have phrased that better. A raccoon had taken you hostage, and he said he was going to kill you, so I shot him, but... I accidentally clipped you as well, sorry about that Jude.”  
Judy's expression softened, “Well, I'm glad it wasn't on purpose. The last thing I remember was leaving your apartment. Where are we, and how long was I out?”  
Nick recapped for her, ending with, “You were out for about thirty five minutes, which I know isn’t good, so again... sorry.”  
He grinned, “On the plus side though, I was able to reach McHorn, and I talked him into coming to rescue us!”  
Judy’s ears perked up, “That’s great news Nick! Hey speaking of, I hear a truck coming to a stop overhead, is that him?”  
Nick shook his head, “Uhh no, it can’t be, I just called him like twenty minutes ago. We better keep quiet.”


	7. Chapter 7

Nick and Judy heard the truck come to stop on the road above, near where their stolen car had crashed through the guardrail.  
They then heard two doors open and close, followed by the indistinct chatter of several mammals.  
The new arrivals walked down the embankment to the wreck, which was not far from the drainage tunnel where the fox and rabbit had hidden.  
After a few moments, one of them said, "Who the fuck did this?! The whole tunnel crew is dead!"  
Another voice quickly answered, "I dunno boss, but they clearly have a gun!"  
The 'boss' replied, with anger in his voice, "Well so do you, so go find 'em, and then put a bullet in 'em! They must be pretty beat up from that wreck, so they can't have gone far."

Nick whispered in Judy's ear "Let's get out of here, they'll definitely check this tunnel."   
He helped her out of the stroller, as quietly as he could, and then the pair walked to the far side of the tunnel, away from the approaching mammals.   
Once they were around the corner on the other side, Nick glanced at the various nearby industrial buildings, before quickly choosing a warehouse with an open truck loading gate.  
Going at the fastest jog they could manage, the pair made their way over to it, and Nick helped Judy climb inside.  
If not for the few small and dirty skylights, the warehouse would be completely dark.   
The pair looked around cautiously, while listening intently; although the warehouse had been ransacked, it didn't seem like anyone was there now.

Judy's sensitive ears soon picked up a conversation echoing from the tunnel, and she returned to the edge of the door to listen.  
"The tracks from the car lead right to this stroller boss."  
The 'boss' answered, "I can't believe whoever did this had a baby with them, give it a sniff and see what you can find."  
A couple moments of tense silence followed, which was broken by someone saying "My nose is fucked from this damn dust, but it smells like a rabbit was sitting in here."  
"Well this stroller is too tall for an adult rabbit to have owned it, so your nose must be even more fucked then mine. You boys spread out and search the area, but be careful."  
Although there were surely plenty of good hiding spots in the warehouse, Nick and Judy decided they would stay by the loading gate, so they could get the jump on anyone trying to climb in.  
Nick drew the revolver and then whispered to Judy "It's empty, but they won't know that at first glance. Can you please go find something you can use as a weapon?"  
She soon returned with a crowbar in hand, and took up position on the opposite side of the open doorway.  
For a solid twenty minutes they listened intently to the four mammals searching around for them; if it hadn't been for the fallout, they surely would have been sniffed out quickly.

Just when Judy thought their pursuers might be finally giving up, or at least moving on, she heard a sound she really didn't want to hear, approaching footsteps.  
She signaled Nick to get ready, moments before they both saw a pair of raccoon paws on the loading gate, one of which held a hatchet.  
The raccoon was too distracted by his struggle to climb into the loading gate to notice the pair of mammals lurking in the shadows.  
Before the unwanted visitor could stand up from the concrete floor, Nick reached down and grabbed his muzzle with one paw, then pressed the gun against his temple with the other.  
Nick whispered harshly, "Let go of that hatchet, and if you signal your buddies, you're dead."  
The fox pulled on the raccoon's muzzle, forcing him to crawl forward on all fours, deeper into the warehouse.  
He whispered to Judy, who had followed behind the raccoon, "Can you find some rope or something, to tie this guy up with."  
She answered back "No need, I've got some zip ties in my pocket. Now you, lie on the ground, put your hands behind your back, and close your eyes."  
The raccoon complied, and Judy pretended to rummage through her pocket, before walking up behind him, as if she was going to tie up his arms.   
Nick saw Judy raise the crowbar over her head, and he opened his muzzle to speak, but decided against it.  
He simply watched, with a look of disgust on his face, as She swung the crowbar down onto the crown of the raccoon's head, as hard as she could.  
With a sickening crunch, the claw end of the tool pierced the racoon's skull, and laid him to rest.

Judy reached down to check the raccoon for a pulse, and satisfied that the was none, she stood back up.  
Nick shook his head and whispered, "Was that really necessary Judy? He was complying, you didn't need to kill him."  
She shrugged, "Just because he was complying now doesn't mean it would stay that way, plus there's three more of them, I don't want to be dealing with a prisoner too."  
Sightly exasperated Nick replied, "A hostage could be very useful right now."  
Judy said coldly, "What's done is done; besides, what's one more body at this point?"  
She turned around and walked back to the door, stopping to pick up the discarded ax along the way.  
Nick quickly covered the body with a discarded sheet of bubble wrap, then followed Judy back to the open door.  
As far as Nick and Judy could tell, there were still three more raccoons out there, hunting them.  
There was no sign of McHorn yet, but unless he ran in trouble, he had to be closing in on their position.


End file.
